Stop Burning Live Bulls

We’re approaching Fire Bull season, when villages in Spain will attach flammable chemicals to the horns of bulls and light them on fire to watch them panic in the streets.

The toro de fuel, fire bull, is a variation on the running of the bulls. In this “celebration”, a bull has wads of flammable material or containers of flammable chemicals attached to his horns and is released into the street.

Seeing flames in front of his face, the bull panics and runs in terror, thrashing and flailing. Villagers taunt and bait the bull, dodging him for fun while sometimes throwing fireworks at him.

It’s common for bulls to charge and smash themselves into walls in a desperate attempt to either put out the flames or kill themselves.

After the flames have disintegrated his horns, the fire moves to the bull’s face and the rest of his body. After being taunted, burned, and exhausted, the festival ends the same way a bullfight does, with the bull being stabbed to death.

Spectacles like the fire bull give us an example of what animal entertainment is at its core: the enormously painful and barbaric torturing of a confused and disabled animal for the sake of amusing human bystanders.

In recent years, many forms of animal entertainment and “sport” have begun to receive a lot of attention. This year Catalonia banned bullfighting, which was hailed as an enormous victory. But while it is a step in the right direction, it is important to realize how many problems are still so rampant. Animal exploitation doesn’t end when we achieve what we perceive to be a high profile victory on an issue.

The fight against rituals like the fire bull, the running of the bulls, bullfighting, horse racing, dogfighting, etc. are all interconnected. If we want to make a difference, we must deplore them simultaneously.

Regardless of whatever cultural importance or emotional weight these events might carry for certain groups, we can’t justify these animals’ suffering anymore than we can justify the misery of an elephant in a zoo, a lion in a circus, an orca in an aquarium, a horse on a track, or a monkey in a laboratory.

Take a stand against all the atrocities being committed against helpless animals and not just some of them. Animals do not exist for our entertainment anymore than they exist for our consumption.

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402 comments

and it is ridden by the heaviest men in the village.The ordeal often leaves the donkey badly injured or crushed to death. After this mental and physical torture has finally ended, the shattered and traumatised donkey is forced in to a trailer and taken away to meet an unknown fate. Then there is the burning of the bulls.
The Tradition In Spain Of Hanging Spanish Galgos
The Galgo is a Spanish Greyhound used by hunters in Spain. It is traditional in Spain at the end of the hunting season for the hunters to kill their dogs, as they do not want to look after them when it is not hunting season. Sadly, this tradition is still very much alive. The most traditional way the hunters kill their dogs is by hanging them from a tree. There they die a prolonged, frightening extremely distressing death. God have mercy on the poor animals who sadly have the misfortune to meet with such evil. The Spanish Government should hang their heads in shame for allowing such primitive evil acts of brutality. You make me sick!

The Toro De La Vega is a cruel and bloody Spanish festival which takes place in the streets of Tordesillas.
A Bull is chased through the streets and over a bridge in the town by in excess of one hundred men and youths armed with sharp lances. Once over the bridge, the animal is attacked by the men thrusting their lances in to him. The Bull tries desperately to get away from this agonising torture, but the poor animal has lances repeatedly plunged in to him until his flesh is torn so badly, and he is bleeding so heavily, that he can eventually go no further. On his collapse, his testicles are cut off, often while he is still alive. This is all watched by rowdy and cheering crowds. This spectacle in this Spanish festival is considered suitable entertainment for the whole family, with many parents taking their children. This horrific tradition was illegal for years, but, incredibly, it was again legalised in 1999!
The Pero Palo Festival In Villanueva de la Vera, Spain
Every year, a terrified donkey is violently forced through the streets of the village of Villanueva de la Vera in Spain, surrounded by drunk, rowdy, young men. The men think it is great fun to beat, kick, bite, shove, drag and crush the terrified donkey, as they all laugh as it is done. The animal regularly collapses from exhaustion and fright, only to be forced back to its feet by violence from the mob of drunken men. Guns are fired close to the panicked animal, alcohol is forced down its throat and it

Entrainment, Spanish style! The barbaric, satanic, uncivilised, sickening torture of the most innocent. It is heart-breaking beyond words. What kind of sick mind would think for one moment that it is fun to inflict torture on poor defenceless animals. Would the cowardly perpetrators like to suffer this savagely cruel treatment? Would you like to be burned, beaten, stabbed, kicked and tortured until the last breath is taken from you? The answer would to that would be no. Yet, you so readily and so cowardly inflict this horrendous torture on poor animals who have never harmed you in any way, and who are powerless to protect themselves from your satanic primitive evil madness. Those who participate in this unforgivable inhuman barbaric treatment of innocent animals should seriously examine their conscience and end this dreadful horror. There is absolutely no excuse on this earth for animal abuse...None!

Now we're setting bulls on fire, tieing up bears against trees for dogs to attack and kill...Just when I think it can't get any worse. This is all so upsetting and painful to know about. Learning compassion may be the only hope for the human race, and I don't know that's going to happen.

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